New act may free Hindley

By Steve Doughty

The Lord Chief Justice signalled to Myra Hindley that the Human Rights Act will set her free.

And, heralding a clash between the Government and the judiciary, Lord Woolf warned Home Secretary Jack Straw not to try to defy the judges if they decide that the new legislation means the Moors murderess must be released.

Ministers are having to review the cases of 140 youngsters detained at Her Majesty's pleasure after the European Court of Human Rights ruled it was unlawful for politicians to be involved in sentencing juveniles.

That was sparked by the 15-year tariff imposed on murdered toddler James Bulger's killers, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, by Conservative Home Secretary Michael Howard. Lord Woolf himself is now poised to announce how long he thinks they should serve.

A test case under the Human Rights Act involving an adult is now expected, but Mr Straw says the ruling does not apply to adults. Lord Woolf said: 'If he's wrong about that, I would expect him to do what he did in regard to juveniles. He may not like it, but that is what he would do.'

Hindley and her lawyers have always protested that the order of successive Home Secretaries that she must die in jail is unjust. She is one of 23 killers who have been told they can never be freed.

But her release would horrify most of the public. And only last month the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, said that in a case such as Hindley's potential release, the Government would ignore the rulings of the judges and their interpretation of the Human Rights Act.

But in an interview with the New Statesmen magazine, Lord Woolf declared that Ministers would have to come to heel. He said he could not speak of Hindley specifically 'because the law could develop, and I may have to make a decision in her case'.

But he said that in a previous Hindley case, he had suggested that the Home Secretary 'had not dealt with the matter correctly'. He added: 'I said you could never tell what would happen in the future, so it is not performing your statutory duty to say, "Life is going to mean life."

Hindley was jailed for life in 1966 for the murder of ten-year-old Lesley Anne Downey and Edward Evans, 17. With Ian Brady, she confessed in 1987 to the killing of Pauline Reade, 16, and 12-year-old Keith Bennett.

Lord Woolf also criticised politicians' ideas on law reform and said he hoped they would 'leave criminal justice alone for a while'.